Facebook has restricted access to news in Australia, and so far the tech giant seems to have taken a pretty broad definition of news.

Some pages that don't fit the traditional news genre were stripped out as part of the stoush between Facebook and the federal government over whether the social media company should pay for Australian content it runs on its site.

In response to the outages, Facebook said government pages should not be hit by the changes. A spokesperson said any inadvertently impacted pages would be fixed.

"As the law does not provide clear guidance on the definition of news content, we have taken a broad definition in order to respect the law as drafted," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Here is a look at some of the pages where posts were down.

Weather forecasting sites

The Bureau of Meteorology, the government agency responsible for providing weather service updates, was affected for a while.

However, it was still possible to post links from the BOM website to Facebook, unlike links from traditional news websites.

The page was restored at about 12:30pm AEDT.

In a statement the BOM reminded readers to visit its website and Twitter feed for updates.

Other weather forecasting sites like WillyWeather and Swellnet also had content pulled.

The nation's peak bodies representing science and scientific expertise released a statement expressing deep concern about content being blocked on pages belonging to Science & Technology Australia, BOM, the Australian Science Media Centre, the Australian Science Teachers Association, Professionals Australia, The Royal Institution of Australia and Research Australia.

Science & Technology Australia chief executive Misha Schubert said the move risked denying the public access to important scientific and health information.

"For Facebook to block access to the feeds of trusted science and health organisations in Australia during a pandemic and bushfire season is irresponsible and dangerous.

"At a time when the company is taking steps to tackle misinformation on its platform, it's concerning it has chosen to silence some of this nation's leading scientific voices."

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Public health organisations and emergency organisations

The health departments for the ACT, South Australia and Queensland had posts taken down.

The executive director of Queensland Health's strategic communications branch, Robert Hoge, said in a statement before posts were reinstated: "We are in the process of rolling out the first phase of our COVID-19 vaccine program and social media is a key tool with which to communicate this information.

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"The decision to block access to our content could hinder our ability to communicate to high-risk groups."

Mr Hoge added: "I applaud Facebook for taking action against anti-vaxxers, Pete Evans and other peddlers of harmful views and conspiracies, however they got this one wrong."

Local health pages across NSW were impacted too, as was Fire and Rescue NSW.

Law enforcement were also caught by the ban. Content under the "latest news" tab for the Victoria Police Facebook page was unavailable.

In Western Australia the Department of Fire and Emergency Services had posts taken down.

The official pages of the Tasmanian and ACT governments were also affected.

Although the Victorian Department of Health page was "up and running" throughout the outages, Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said it was a concern that some pages were down.

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"This is a big issue of concern. We need to make sure that credible, reliable and authoritative public health information is readily available in all sorts of platforms," Mr Foley said.

In South Australia, several other organisations were also impacted including SA Water, the South Australian Government page, and the South Australian Council of Social Service's page.

Support services, unions

Domestic, family and sexual violence services 1800RESPECT and DVConnect had posts taken down.

Also affected was the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

Secretary Sally McManus said it was "disgraceful" that the organisation was caught up in the moves.

"We are not a news organisation. Australian workers can not now find out about their rights at work via @Facebook," she wrote on Twitter.

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Small businesses and politics

Facebook pages of small businesses were also caught up in the ban.

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Sallie Jones from Gippsland Jersey said her dairy business's Facebook posts were deleted.

"For us not to have Facebook in the first place, which I'm totally freaking out about, but the function of not to be able to share the news links, it's just so disappointing to us as a company," she said.

Ms Jones said she had grown her business reach through social media, including by sharing stories from news outlets.

"I actually don't know what to do because we've built our whole business on Facebook and Instagram and as a start-up little milk brand, so we've relied very much relied on sharing content," she said.

In politics, WA Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup's Facebook page was hit by the ban, but Premier Mark McGowan's page appeared untouched — three weeks out from an election.

Brisbane councillor Jonathan Sri's account was also impacted. 

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Local and international media

Smaller regional Victorian newspapers weren't spared.

In western Victoria, the Hamilton Spectator was fielding calls from irate readers within hours of the ban.

"As a smaller newspaper, Facebook's our first point of communication with our readership and to not have it, it's like cutting off one of your legs," said editor Tara Fry.

"For a lot of people, whether it's right or wrong, they do get their news from Facebook.

"I've already had a number of locals come in or, or talk to me and say, 'What are we going to do? That's where I go to get my news'.

"So it's pretty frustrating, and to have it come out of the blue, I guess, even more."

The newspaper produces three editions per week, and Ms Fry said the paper uses social media to publish urgent information that can't wait for the print edition.

Radio Australia and the ABC Indonesia accounts were also down. The ban also hampered access to content in the Pacific region via Facebook.

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Lifestyle and satire

Other pages which were stripped of their content included Urban List, which offers restaurant reviews, satire sites like the The Betoota Advocate and The Shovel, and homemaker magazines like Home Beautiful.

Even Facebook's own Facebook page removed content for Australians readers.

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Other pages caught up in the ban included:

• Harvey Norman
• TransLink
• RACQ
• Bowel Cancer Australia
• The Kids' Cancer Project
• Women's Rugby League
• Queensland Rugby League
• Women's Legal Services Tasmania
• The Chaser
• Media Diversity Australia
• The Walkleys Foundation
• Queensland's InTrust Super Cup
• Sacred Heart Mission
• Council to Homeless Persons
• Mission Australia
• Bowel Cancer Australia
• The Kids' Cancer Project
• Harvey Norman
• Energex
• Opportunity International Australia
• ACMI
• Monash University
• The University of Southern Queensland
• Save the Children Australia
• Australian Wildlife Conservancy
• The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne
• The Malthouse Theatre
• Bond University
• Great Barrier Reef Foundation
• Victorian Labor
• National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services
• WWF Australia